Target Clearance Schedule for Markdowns

There is an unofficial Target Clearance Schedule for Markdowns that I wanted to share with you. This isn’t anything that Target will tell you specifically but I can personally testify that this is really accurate based on the last 4 years of tracking sales and clearance at Target.

When you are shopping for a specific item, let’s take Toys as an example. You want to start watching for the 15% Clearance. Once the items go to 15% off they will start going through the inventory Markdown Cycle.

Check the schedule for the day the items get marked down (Toys are on Wednesday Mornings). Once you see the Markdown Cycle Start check your stores each Wednesday to see if they have hit the next level. For example the next week the items may go to 30% off, the following week to 50% off, 75% off and 90% off or until the items are gone.

The Best Time to Shop:

My Target starts marking items down about 8am when the store opens. I like to shop around 9am, you may find employees still marking items down but you can always ask them to price check an item if it hasn’t been marked a new price yet. This is one of the best ways to get the best selection of the new clearance items.

Target Clearance Events:

Toy Clearance: Typically July and October are the best times to find Toy Clearance. January also has a lot of After Christmas Clearance. The July Sale is the best time to stock up for Christmas, I find that in October everyone is ready to buy and the toys sell out extremely fast!

Baby Clearance: January and July are Baby Clearance Times. These are the best times to grab deals on Highchairs, Strollers, Jumpers, Clothing and more.

Remember that when you see something you want, once items start reaching about 50% they sell quickly so it’s risky to always wait for the 75% Sale on something you really need or want.

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Each store is different. I recently went to one store and the baby clothes were half off but another store, 20 minutes down the road, hadn’t even marked theirs down yet. It pays to know your stores and which stores mark items down fastest. If you see something marked down at one but what you want is gone, you can check out another store.

Thank you! With our Target, the toys get marked down on Thursdays. I’m a Targetholic and I’ve been getting those clearance toys for years as well. My friend and I head out yearly the 3rd Thursday evening in July and stock up for Christmas.